Pacific Coast Models Hawker Tempest

[dennismcc]

Looking at the contents of the box and reading through other people’s build threads I decided not to write a build thread for this one as I was not sure that it would get finished.

 But I did hedge my bets by keeping notes and taking photos just in case it worked out better than I thought.

Also after Chuck’s absolutely amazing Tempest build thread mine would be a little underwhelming, but for those Tempest lovers and for those with PCM Tempests in their stash I decided to go ahead.

And it did go better than I had expected and here is where I am up to now, apart from the cockpit photos which I must have accidentally deleted I have all the photos that I took up to this point.

After my Japanese kit building period I decided to start building some of the PCM kits that I have in the stash, my theme this time is RAF, and as usual I will attempt to build three in a year.

I settled on the Hawker Tempest, Hawker Hurricane Mk.I (fabric winged) and Spitfire IX, the latter because amazingly I have never build a Mk.IX.

 

I started with the Tempest as it is one of my favourite subjects, I meant to build it years ago but got seduced by an MDC Typhoon.  The intention was to build the Typhoon and then the Tempest but I was appalled by the small number of builds that I had completed that year so did two quick builds of Luftwaffe subjects.

 

For some reason I have two PCM Tempest kits, in my eagerness to get my grubby hands on one I must have ordered from two different shops.

 

You have to remember that at the time PCM was making kits of subjects that had not been kitted before, the Tempest, Hurricane and Spitfire IX being the major ones for me, though later on the fascination for Italian subjects would lead to another PCM spending spree.

 

To encourage manufacturers to build nice subjects I also have a Special Hobby Tempest to build as well.

This seems to work as a Whirlwind is in the offing, just need a Defiant and a Fulmar and a Battle and more, and more, and more.

 

More soon

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[R Palimaka]

You're right about the PCM kits, I think they're still worth having and building. This one especially still builds into a fine model of the Tempest, and at the time it was the only injection moulded option. 

 

Please do post the photos you've got, I'm certain we'd be happy to see and read how you got her to this point.

 

Thanks for this.

 

Richard

[monthebiff]

Love it Dennis and like you I really like the PCM kits as with a little work they build up beautifully. Looking forward to seeing more of your build.

 

Regards.Andy 

[dennismcc]

1 hour ago, R Palimaka said:

You're right about the PCM kits, I think they're still worth having and building. This one especially still builds into a fine model of the Tempest, and at the time it was the only injection moulded option. 

 

Please do post the photos you've got, I'm certain we'd be happy to see and read how you got her to this point.

 

Thanks for this.

 

Richard

 

8 minutes ago, monthebiff said:

Love it Dennis and like you I really like the PCM kits as with a little work they build up beautifully. Looking forward to seeing more of your build.

 

Regards.Andy 

Thank you for the encouragement gents, I've only built the one PCM kit which was their G55, it was challenging but built into a nice looking model in the end, hopefully the Tempest will do the same

[dennismcc]

So with no further ado I'll plunge on.

The box art

The contents

The PE

Clear Parts

Resin details

Sprues

Think that's ten so I'll start anther post

[dennismcc]

Contents continued

The subjects of the decal sheet

I have lots of reference material, printed and electronic so information is not a problem as long as I can find two that can agree

 

As I prefer to paint markings I have two sets of Montex masks and for the camouflage paint job a set of AML camouflage masks.

I also have some Barracuda detail parts, seat, air intake, and main wheels, though I will be keeping some for the SH Tempest.

Over the years I have copied extracts concerning the Tempest from various modelling websites, plus a few of build threads from model website including several from the LSP forums (thank you guys). Plus the very detailed Tweak List from Thierry which was a tremendous help.

 

After market

And spurred on by Chucks build I got these from UMM.

More to come

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[LSP_Kevin]

 

Nice project, Dennis!

 

29 minutes ago, dennismcc said:

Think that's ten so I'll start anther post

 

 

The limit is 15 now Dennis, if I remember correctly.

 

Kev

[dennismcc]

This is all recorded so don't think that it is a speed build, I'm a bit glacial in reality.

Some of the reference books that I used.

The cockpit looked very complicated consisting of plastic, resin and tiny PE parts so I took it very slowly.

I also used some scrap plastic to fit some locating tabs on the fuselage halves to aid line up.

As is my normal practice I cut all the parts from the sprues leaving just a tail to hold them in clamps ready for painting.

This is where the cockpit photos are missing, all I have left is the following

This is the part where the Tweak list advised to shorten the top bar above, I also fitted a spacer to get the correct gap between the frame and bulkhead (2mm)

And this shows a part completed IP.

There are some contradictory ideas out there about cockpit colours, all green, all black, half black half green with green tubes or silver tubes.

So it was decision time after a search of my pickings from websites I went with silver tube frames with half black (above elbow) and green after reading Chris Thomas’s comments below. Chris literally wrote the book on the Typhoon and Tempest so I trust his opinion.

 

Based on observation of EJ693 whilst it was still in its original paintwork, cockpit sides down to the bottom of the door panels , head armour and decking behind the latter (but beneath the closed canopy) were all in Night (black). Below the door panels grey/green. Tubing was painted Aluminium. As Typhoons had been painted in this way since mid-1943 I would think earlier Tempests (and later ones for that matter) also featured this scheme.

Chris Thomas

I have a Barracuda seat but decided to save that for my future SH Tempest build, as the kit seat once covered in seat belts and hidden in the cockpit will suffice.

 

The cockpit tubular framework was painted with Humbrol 56 Aluminium.

Once I had completed the initial paint jobs on the cockpit components I started to do some test fitting, this revealed that in a lot of cases locating holes were missing so these were drilled out.

 

Also missing was a lot of pins to go in these locating holes, this called for some more drilling and gluing in of fuse wire to replace the missing pins.

 

The instrument panel consists of six pre painted PE panels, three parts with the instrument faces painted on and three parts with the instrument bezels and switches.

The instrument panels were glued to the plastic backing, the initial three parts were glued to the backing plastic backing with CA, then the covering parts were glued in place using Krystal Klear. Not quite YAHU but better than I could do.

 

The cockpit also contains a lot of tiny PE parts which looked very challenging.

I set about the right hand side console with it’s three levers and two switches, to help with this I glued some plastic strip under the PE part so that the aforementioned tiny parts would have something to stick to.

This went well, so I started on the port side but gave up as there was no mounting points on the side frame to glue it in place so it was left off.

 

I also lost part D2 which fits on the port side frame and looks like the throttle box, so a hunt through my spares box turned up a similar box from an old build so that was painted up and fitted.

 

The instructions are quite vague on component placement so I did a trial run and found that the right console fouled the Instrument panel so it was removed for later fitment.

 

The kit seat was painted with Grey Green, for this I use Humbrol 120 Matt Light Green which matches the chip in the RAFM book (well to my eye it does), the seat back was painted with Humbrol 84 Matt mid stone.

 

The seat backing bulkhead (B19) was painted with H120 and the head armour H85 satin black the cockpit framing for the bulkhead was painted with Humbrol 56 Aluminium.

 

The fuselage cockpit sides were painted with Humbrol 85 Satin coal black at the top and Humbrol 120 on the bottom, When this was dry lots of Airscale cockpit placard decals (WW2 Allied) were attached to add some detail

 

The control column was painted with H120, the spade grip with H85, the instructions would have you fit the chain pulley on the front of the column (pilot side) but the reference books puts it on the instrument panel side, so that’s where I put it.

 

As the tweak list notes I did not fit the control column on the floor as per the instructions as it will foul the compass, I made up a plate, drilled a hole in it and fitted it onto the “floor” further back.

 

The compass was painted grey with a green bracket and the pre painted PE part fitted.

 

A trial fit of the cockpit into the taped together fuselage sides showed a tight fit which pressed the fuselage sides apart a bit, I wondered what this would do to the fit of the wings to the fuselage so decided to leave the cockpit for a while and assemble the wings.

Sadly as mentioned I have lost or deleted all the cockpit photos, I will attach them if I ever find them again.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[dennismcc]

2 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

Nice project, Dennis!

 

 

 

The limit is 15 now Dennis, if I remember correctly.

 

Kev

Thanks Kev, it didn't start out very well but I plugged away at it and now I am back in the modelling groove.

15 photos will be a big help

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[dennismcc]

More "speed" modelling,

The separate resin wheel well insert was painted grey green and the resin fronts fitted.

 

After the wing parts (5) were cleaned up I taped them together to check the fit, the centre section with the wheel well insert loosely fitted fouled the upper wing panel a little so the wheel well top was shaved down a bit which cured that.

The fit of the outer wing undersides to the centre section left a step so the attachment “lip” on the centre section was sanded down until the step was gone.

Once I was satisfied with the fit the wheel well insert was glued to the wing centre section and put to once side.

Before the wing can be assembled the underside lights need painting, the light under the centre fuselage was painted orange, which was the nearest to amber that I had.

Then the under wing lights (2) were painted, one a normal light, this was painted silver but the other has two lamps in the wing one green and one red. So I painted two arcs one green and one red on the edge of the clear part, once dry the back was painted grey green to look like the inside of the wing.

 

FA cup time so wil have to pause here

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

 

[Thunnus]

Right on Dennis!  Good to see a PCM Tempest kit being built up!  I hear you about following Chuck's epic Tempest log... hard to top that but I'm sure we'll each bring something different to the table.

[Troy Molitor]

Following for sure Dennis.  

[chuck540z3]

Great start Dennis and if you don't know about The Hawker Tempest Page already, I found most of the reference pics here, especially NV778:

 

Hawker Tempest Walkarounds

 

It will be interesting to see how this one builds up compared to the Special Hobby version that John is building.  If you need further info, etc. drop me a PM and I bet I can help you.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[dennismcc]

7 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

Great start Dennis and if you don't know about The Hawker Tempest Page already, I found most of the reference pics here, especially NV778:

 

Hawker Tempest Walkarounds

 

It will be interesting to see how this one builds up compared to the Special Hobby version that John is building.  If you need further info, etc. drop me a PM and I bet I can help you.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Thanks Chuck that's very kind of you I did find the Hawker Tempest page from your build thread and it is a great resource for Tempest fans.

I also have your build thread as a Word document all cleaned up which I have used throughout the build so far, though not quite up to your standards but it is a great help

Looking at all the options the subject of my build will be EJ558 R*SD of 501 Squadron flown by Flying Officer B.F. Miller (USAAF), I wanted a "clean" Tempest like you without stripes so that is the one I went for.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[dennismcc]

So where were we, ahh wings and things.

With the centre section put to one side the main wheels (Barracuda) were painted with Humbrol 67 for the tyres and polished aluminium for the hubs, the tail wheel got the same treatment. The main undercarriage legs were also painted, these took some time to clean up.

The fit of the under nose scoop radiator “roof” was very vague and it took a lot of sanding and test fitting to arrive at a good fit to the fuselage.

 

The radiator internal bulkheads were painted aluminium and the assembly glued together.

Looking back I should have painted the plastic bulkheads black this would have saved me doing a black wash later, will do it that way on the Hurricane.

While I was here I fitted the Barracuda air intake to the radiator grill the instruction were great, you just have to be slow which came easily for me..

The "lights" were then fitted to the lower wing sections.

Then a change of plan, I had intended to assemble the wings first but thinking about it I wanted to sort out the fuselage first, so more sanding and test fitting of the cockpit to fuselage was called for.

 

In this process a lot of the nice surface detail on the fuselage sides was sacrificed to get the assembled cockpit to fit inside the taped together fuselage sides, this also required some grooving of the fuselage sides.

 

Eventually the cockpit “tub” was made to fit, then with the fuselage taped up with the cockpit installed CA was used to attach it to one side of the fuselage.

 Supports were made up of scrap plastic and glued to the fuselage side and cockpit tubing to ensure that the cockpit “tub” stayed in place while the inevitable handling while sanding seams took place, I didn't want to risk something coming loose.

 

The tail wheel bay was assembled test fitted, sanded and glued to one fuselage side.

 

The position of the radiator was marked on the taped up fuselage halves and it was then glued into position, scrap plastic was used to make supports for it to butt against.

 

The fuselage with attached internals was then successfully glued together and the seams sanded and polished, it was rather a relief to get past this milestone, as it had put me right off continuing the build.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Edited February 10, 2021 by dennismcc
added a photo